Boat Creates Some Waves For O'meara

LAKE BUENA VISTA — Mark O'Meara, with an eagle 3 two holes earlier, was threatening to run off and hide with the lead Friday in the third round of the Walt Disney World/ Oldsmobile Classic.

Then he got yanked back into the pack - by a pontoon boat, of all things.

O'Meara's round included an eagle, a double bogey two holes later, four birdies and three bogeys. At times, he resembled one of his amateur playing partners. Often he looked like the tournament leader. Combined, he is one of many still in the hunt for the $180,000 first prize.

O'Meara, the second-round leader after back-to-back rounds of 66, shot 1-under-par 71 on the Lake Buena Vista Course to settle into a three-way tie for second at 13 under, one stroke behind Paul Azinger.

''I could have been 17 or 18 under at this point, so it's disappointing,'' said O'Meara, a resident of Orlando. ''I just hit too many poor shots. I lost my concentration. I'm not blaming the boat, but it didn't help me any.''

O'Meara, who started the day on the back nine, approached the par-3 No. 7 at 15 under.

But a pontoon boat coming from the Disney resort had made a wrong turn down the dead-end canal in front of the green. An inexperienced boat driver became flustered when course marshalls tried to wave him away. He went backward, then forward, backward then forward. It was about an 8-minute delay for O'Meara and his playing partners.

When he finally was able to play, O'Meara promptly pulled his 4-iron shot far left, bouncing it off the cart path and out of bounds. His chip onto the green wasn't much better, and he settled for the double bogey.

''That's just part of the game,'' O'Meara said. ''I should be an experienced enough player that something like that (the boat) shouldn't bother me. But it threw me out of sync. That was the downfall to my round.''

O'Meara rebounded with an 8-foot birdie putt on No. 8 but three-putted for another bogey.

''It was an up-and-down day,'' he said. ''I can't be too unhappy, though, at 13 under. I did the best I could do today. And I'm still close.''